SC to hear fresh plea on Section 377 which criminalises homosexuality

May 17, 2018

New Delhi: Supreme Court has decided to hear the plea filed by Indian Institute of Technology's LGBT alumni association seeking scrapping of Section 377 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), which criminalises homosexuality.

The top court, however, has not fixed any date for hearing the plea.

Previously, on April 27 this year, Ashok Rao Kavi of Humsafar Trust and Arif Jaffar filed petitions against Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which criminalises homosexuality.

Their pray comes just six days after hotelier Keshav Suri, filed a plea in this regard in the top court.

They all sought a hearing from the apex court, which agreed to hear it on May 1.

In response to Suri's plea, the apex court on April 23 sought the Centre's reply on the plea seeking scrapping of Section 377.

Earlier in 2009, the Delhi High Court had decriminalised Section 377, but the order was later set aside by a Supreme-Court bench.

Categorised as an unnatural offence, consensual sexual intercourse between persons of same-sex is termed 'against the order of nature' under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and can be punishable by life imprisonment.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)

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